13th January 2024
The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Saturday, revealed a plan by President Bola Tinubu towards the establishment of the marine police, solid mineral police and better-trained forest guards.
In a message he posted on X (formerly Twitter), Onanuga said Tinubu, at a meeting in Abuja on Friday with governors of the All Progressives Congress, revealed his plans to rejig Nigeria’s security architecture.
Onanuga wrote, “He (Tinubu) mentioned three brand new police formations, to augment the regular police.
“He said the deployment of forest guards was being considered, with better training, modern technological gadgets and weapons to strengthen security.
“He said the solid mineral and marine economic sectors will also be secured by special police.”
The presidential aide further quoted Tinubu as saying, “We have a big marine economy, and I do not see why we should not have the marine police.
“We will have the same in solid minerals to keep the scavengers away. I am ready to invest in security.”
He said Tinubu also revealed his plans to stock the nation’s mineral resources, in reserve.
“We will buy our own minerals and keep them in reserves, especially gold, which will be effective in our foreign exchange reserve,’’ the President reportedly told the governors.
Despite Tinubu’s promise to establish marine police, however, PUNCH Online reports that marine police currently exist as an arm of the Nigeria Police Force.
According to information available on the website of the NPF, the marine police was established in 1891 in Lagos, and was then styled ‘Night Water Patrol.’
“The Marine Section is currently a branch of the ‘B’ Department of the Force. The Section has 81 Marine Stations, and Outpost spread across the length and breadth of the inland navigable rivers and waterways in the country.
“It has formations and commands at the Force Headquarters and 20 states of the federation,” the message on the NPF website read.
The President had earlier set up a constitutional review committee to carry out comprehensive police reforms.
The Governor of Bauchi State, Bala Mohammed, announced the development while speaking to State House correspondents at the end of a meeting of the Nigeria Police Council chaired by the President in late October 2023.
The council at the meeting confirmed Olukayode Egbetokun as the substantive Inspector-General of Police.
According to Mohammed, members of the committee include Ibrahim Geidam, Minister of Police Affairs; Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser; Solomon Arase, Chairman of the Police Service Commission; and AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, governor of Kwara State and the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum.
“The President has formed a special committee to look at all the gaps in Nigeria’s 1999 constitution with a view to bring harmony and synergy, closing technology and manpower to the Nigerian Police Gorce.
“The committee comprises the minister of police affairs, NSA, chairman of PSC, and the chairman of the NGF. They will work together with a view to make sure that the Nigeria Police is reformed,” Mohammed said in October 2023.
